"This year we had the car running well but we had a lot of tough races and that is something I am very proud of," he said.
"The races when we were not the fastest car, we kept it together as a team, worked very hard, remained calm most of the times and barely made any mistakes.
"We really maximised and maybe overperformed in some places, plus our opposition in a few places definitely don’t grab the points they should have and all of those things matter when you are fighting for a championship."
Verstappen was praised by his rivals, who all said he deserved his title for such a strong season.
Norris said: "He made some mistakes but over the course of the season that is very few and that’s what makes him so good.
"He has not had a bad qualifying or a bad race. He just gets everything out of the car and that's always impressive to see, always things to learn."
Verstappen said he expected next season to be "a proper battle between a lot of cars, but I’m hungry".
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told BBC Radio 5 Live: "It's incredible, he's done an amazing job, he's been outstanding all year and we are just very proud of him, he's driven brilliantly.
"He's won eight grands prix, he's won the World Championship with two races to go, you can't ask for more than that.
"He just gets in the car and he delivers, he's a great human. It puts him amongst the greats, statistics now put him there as well.
"He's only just turned 27 and he's in the form of his life so as long as we can keep giving him a decent car then he will keep delivering."